Wednesday, 21 November 2012

First Evidence Of Incendiary Submuntion Cluster Bombs Used In Syria

Recently a number of videos have been posted online that seem to indicate that a new type of bomb is being used in Syria, likely an incendiary bomb of some type. For example, this video from the Aleppo region shows what appears to be the contents of one of these bombs

It's unclear what this substance is, but some people believe it's white phosphorous, but as yet there's been no evidence of how these bombs have been delivered.

The following video from the Aleppo region shows what I believe is the first evidence of incendiary cluster bombs being deployed in Syria

At first glance these may look like regular RBK cluster bombs, but this image from the video showing the bomb markings tell us exactly what the bomb is

The text reads RBK-250, the cluster canister type, and ZAB-2.5. ZAB stands for zazhigatelnaya aviatsionnaya bomba, meaning "incendiary aircraft bomb". At the end of the video we also see what appears to be the scorched remains of one of the bomblets. As yet it's unclear the exact type of incendiary substances used with the ZAB-2.5 bomblets, so I cannot confirm this is white phosphorus. This clearly indicates that there's at least one incendiary cluster bomb in this, picture, and three if the tail fins belong to RBK-250 ZAB-2.5 cluster bombs.

As with all cluster bombs we'll almost certainly see more evidence of cluster bomb canisters and unexploded bomblets, so expect more videos like this in the future. It's also interesting to note that this bomb appears shortly after the recent significant gains by the Syrian opposition across the country, much like cluster bombs began to appear after the Damascus-Idlib highway was captured near Maarrat al-Numan in Idlib.